The night before my first tutoring session, I was focused on being fearless. I knew my student's name and grade level and was girded by benchmarks and countless activities to try, but somehow I wasn't sure I'd manage to get it right. Should I bring activities the first day? What should we read? What if I brought a book that was too hard? Too easy? In the end I allowed nervousness to win out over preparedness and settled for bringing a notebook, pens and pencils, and the idea in my head that we'd talk about what to read and then pick something out - we were meeting in a library after all. I was so worried about bringing the wrong books or the wrong materials that I thought I'd rely on my student to inspire me.
The next morning, armed with my shaky plan, I set off to the library to meet my student for the first time. Although I was nervous, I was also excited, and when we introduced ourselves and shook hands, I felt the excitement start to overwhelm the nerves and I was ready for our meeting.
As I began to talk to my student about what we might read, though, I realized that perhaps fear hadn't been an appropriate focus. I was feeling pretty fearless, my student was polite and entirely unintimidating, a very nice man. I, however, was face to face with my woeful lack of preparedness. Maybe I should have realized that knowing what sorts of things might be interesting to read is an activity that is easier for experienced readers. I definitely should have had a backup plan for what to do when L told me that he was happy to read "whatever" and I was left with a whole library and not many ideas.
Because I hadn't prepared myself with anything for us to read, we ended up choosing a couple of books from the children's section. Not my first choice, but the books were the closest thing at hand to his reading level and it seemed to make sense that children's books would at least be better than books that might be on too high a grade level.
Turned out that the books weren't a big problem. While I'd have preferred a more adult-relevant text, we got along fine reading about autumn apples, writing down some words for practice, talking about noticing first consonants, and practicing recognizing different endings in familiar words (e.g. the -s ending on sight word nouns.) We may not have mastered any benchmarks, but we found a place to start and I had a better idea of how to move forward.
Our hour together progressed more quickly than I'd anticipated and soon we were discussing the next week's meeting and I was driving home full of ideas for readings to find and activities to try.
When I reflect on that first day, I see a good learning experience as well as things I would have changed. At first, I thought that I should write this post to discuss things to do on the first day, but I think maybe each person has to have their own first day. I do have some advice, though.
First, be a little more prepared than you are nervous. I'm the kind of person who can allow nervousness to get in the way of preparedness, but a few books to try out and an activity or two might have made that first hour go a little smoother.
Second, your student won't mind if you are nervous, or if you don't get it all right. Adult learners are bravely admitting imperfection when they seek out tutoring. There is no harm in tutors admitting imperfection in return.
Unfortunately, my first student was unable to continue tutoring, but I'm very grateful to him. I might not have been able to teach him much about literacy, but he taught me a lesson about being fearless, prepared, and honestly imperfect.
Rachel is a graduate student at the University of Memphis. She is passionate about reading, writing, community outreach, and her many furred and feathered companions.
The next morning, armed with my shaky plan, I set off to the library to meet my student for the first time. Although I was nervous, I was also excited, and when we introduced ourselves and shook hands, I felt the excitement start to overwhelm the nerves and I was ready for our meeting.
As I began to talk to my student about what we might read, though, I realized that perhaps fear hadn't been an appropriate focus. I was feeling pretty fearless, my student was polite and entirely unintimidating, a very nice man. I, however, was face to face with my woeful lack of preparedness. Maybe I should have realized that knowing what sorts of things might be interesting to read is an activity that is easier for experienced readers. I definitely should have had a backup plan for what to do when L told me that he was happy to read "whatever" and I was left with a whole library and not many ideas.
Because I hadn't prepared myself with anything for us to read, we ended up choosing a couple of books from the children's section. Not my first choice, but the books were the closest thing at hand to his reading level and it seemed to make sense that children's books would at least be better than books that might be on too high a grade level.
Turned out that the books weren't a big problem. While I'd have preferred a more adult-relevant text, we got along fine reading about autumn apples, writing down some words for practice, talking about noticing first consonants, and practicing recognizing different endings in familiar words (e.g. the -s ending on sight word nouns.) We may not have mastered any benchmarks, but we found a place to start and I had a better idea of how to move forward.
Our hour together progressed more quickly than I'd anticipated and soon we were discussing the next week's meeting and I was driving home full of ideas for readings to find and activities to try.
When I reflect on that first day, I see a good learning experience as well as things I would have changed. At first, I thought that I should write this post to discuss things to do on the first day, but I think maybe each person has to have their own first day. I do have some advice, though.
First, be a little more prepared than you are nervous. I'm the kind of person who can allow nervousness to get in the way of preparedness, but a few books to try out and an activity or two might have made that first hour go a little smoother.
Second, your student won't mind if you are nervous, or if you don't get it all right. Adult learners are bravely admitting imperfection when they seek out tutoring. There is no harm in tutors admitting imperfection in return.
Unfortunately, my first student was unable to continue tutoring, but I'm very grateful to him. I might not have been able to teach him much about literacy, but he taught me a lesson about being fearless, prepared, and honestly imperfect.
Rachel is a graduate student at the University of Memphis. She is passionate about reading, writing, community outreach, and her many furred and feathered companions.